Interfacial Thermodynamics and Transport

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The proposed research will leverage my internationally recognized track record in developing and applying a deep mastery of many branches of thermodynamics to provide theoretical frameworks, equations and insight needed to understand, predict, design, and control complex multicomponent, multiphase systems and processes. Multicomponent, multiphase systems (drops, bubbles, emulsions, foams, aerosols, and multiphase fluids in solid porous media) and processes (wetting, melting/solidification, evaporation/condensation) that will be addressed by this research occur in almost every manufacturing, natural resources, and energy industry; are the basis for novel surface, microfluidic and nano-technologies; are central to complex processes in the environment; and are the focus of much of modern science. While 135-year old Gibbsian surface thermodynamics is the underlying science describing multicomponent high-surface-area fluids, the most thermodynamically correct work has been done only for relatively uncomplicated systems. The proposed research will address many currently outstanding problems under three broad objectives: